The Social Darwinist Imperium of The Ascendant Hive is a colossal, efficient nation, ruled by Oryx the Taken King with an iron fist, and remarkable for its sprawling nuclear power plants, frequent executions, and punitive income tax rates. The hard-nosed, cynical, humorless, devout population of 8.253 billion Ascendant Spawn are kept under strict control by the oppressive government, which measures its success by the nation's GDP and refers to individual citizens as "human resources."

The relatively small, corrupt, moralistic, well-organized government is primarily concerned with Defense, with Law & Order, Industry, and Education also on the agenda, while Social Policy and Environment are ignored. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Ascendant Dreadnaught. The average income tax rate is 97.8%.

The frighteningly efficient Ascendant Brood economy, worth a remarkable 6,066 trillion Ascendant Runes a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is an enormous, deeply entrenched, broadly diversified black market in Arms Manufacturing, Information Technology, Uranium Mining, and Retail. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is a breathtaking 735,014 Ascendant Runes, and evenly distributed, with the richest citizens earning only 4.9 times as much as the poorest.

Scenic tours are unheard of after most environmental laws were abolished, the army's use of chemical weapons leaves a bad taste in the mouth, political loyalty is enforced by way of chemical addiction, and the full title of Hon Oryx the Taken King Vcte Mgve MF SDIAHLM GCABE runs to several pages. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. The Ascendant Hive's national animal is the Ascendant Worm, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, and its national religion is the Sword-Logic.

The Ascendant Hive is ranked 217,592^nd in the world and 184^th in Refugia for Most Extensive Civil Rights, with 16.77 Martin Luther King, Jr. Units.